weird bee - Anthidium manicatum

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees » Leafcutter, Mason, and Resin Bees, and allies (Megachilidae) » Leafcutter, Resin, Mortar, Sharptail, Mason, and Woolcarder bees and relatives (Megachilinae) » Wool-carder, Resin, Pebble, and Allied Bees (Anthidiini) » Woolcarder Bees (Anthidium) » Subgenus Anthidium (Anthidium Subgenus Anthidium) » European Wool-carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum)

Photo#431387

Copyright © 2010 Molly Jacobson

weird bee - Anthidium manicatum

Beaver Brook Association, Hollis, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA
July 19, 2010

This bee had better be ID to species after all I went through to photograph it.
This large bee spent a good half and hour hovering around and landing on this one group of flowers. Every time I would come in for a photo, it would take off and land somewhere else. I cut my leg on a metal post sticking out of the ground while chasing it. Curse you demon bee!!! No, the weird part was that this bee was like attacking other bees! It would spot a bee and hover in front of it for a while, then pounce on it! It kinda looked like it was trying to mate with all these other bees...
So it took me half an hour to get a Bugguide-worthy pic of this bee.

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Contributed by Molly Jacobson on 23 July, 2010 - 7:20pm
Last updated 27 August, 2012 - 7:13am

Moved

Moved from Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and Stinging Wasps.

… Molly Jacobson, 24 July, 2010 - 8:27am

Perhaps

Anthidium manicatum

… Domingo Zungri, 23 July, 2010 - 8:28pm

yes!

because on that page was i guess the other gender of that bee and that's what ones the bee was attacking!

… Molly Jacobson, 24 July, 2010 - 8:27am

Attacks and mating look similar

Males of this species knock bees of other species off flowers. They also ambush females of their own species and mate with them. You can tell the difference from a distance because mating takes a little longer. I got pictures of mating today:

I know what you mean about the difficulty of photographing them. They're very fast.

… R. Berg, 29 August, 2010 - 11:36pm

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